BCG Daily Thursday 23rd February 2017
News
Live
TV
Live
TV
Features
Live
Press clippings
Interview: Ivor Dembina
For controversial stand-up comedian Ivor Dembina, the old jokes are still among the best.
Daniel Keane, ABC News (Australia), 23rd February 2017Preview - Gap Year
Written by among other people the team behind ITV2 Roman sitcom Plebs, E4's latest comedy drama goes even further afield, although it brings it back to the present day.
Ian Wolf, On The Box, 23rd February 2017Star comedian makes nostalgic homecoming
He may be well-known for his television appearances and theatre-filling gigs, but comedian Seann Walsh says the time he spent learning his craft in Brighton was the best of his life.
Brighton Argus, 23rd February 2017Interview: Kieran Hodgson
Maestro earned Kieran Hodgson his second Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination, he's recently had his own BBC Radio 4 sitcom, and he's coming to Brighton!
Victoria Nangle, The Latest, 23rd February 2017Janice Connolly: comedy's lost its underground spirit
Live comedy has lost much of its anarchic, punk spirit and become more 'corporate'. That's the view of the performer behind the Stockport housewife character Barbara Nice, Janice Connolly, speaking at an 'in conversation' event at the Leicester Comedy Festival last night.
Chortle, 23rd February 2017Miranda Hart interview
The TV star reveals why she's penned a comedy for real teens - to help them navigate Snapchat FOMO, and dodge the tedium of hour-long makeup tutorials.
Miranda Hart, The Guardian, 23rd February 2017Is ITV's The Nightly Show, Britain's answer to SNL?
ITV has moved 'News At Ten' to accommodate The Nightly Show, an up-to-the-minute satirical news programme, presented at first by David Walliams, who says there hasn't been a better time to be a satirist.
The Independent, 23rd February 2017TV Review: Gap Year, E4
I could pretty much watch anything that Tim Key is in, so I'm glad he is in Gap Year. I'm not sure if I'd have stuck with the opening episode without his moon-faced grin popping up soon after the start as irritating hanger-on Greg.
Beyond The Joke, 23rd February 2017Gap Year review
Overall, there's an appealing ironic undertone, and a knowingness to the fact the characters often aren't fully immersed in the world they came looking for. After going to great pains to watch a sunrise over the Great Wall Of China, comes the question: 'How much longer are we going to spend looking at it?'
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 23rd February 2017Gap Year: 9 ways to stop yours being a total disaster
How to avoid some of the sticky situations in E4's new comedy about five backpackers travelling around Southeast Asia.
Radio Times, 23rd February 2017Pictures: Rowan Atkinson filming for Comic Relief
Rowan Atkinson has been spotted filming for a Love Actually sketch.
The Telegraph, 23rd February 2017Ricky Gervais leaves stage due to heart attack fears
The 55-year-old comedian shocked fans at Bristol's Colston Hall last night when he left the stage for 10 minutes due to a health scare.
The Daily Express, 23rd February 2017Alfie Brown review
Like a British Doug Stanhope, the provocative comic oozes scorn, cynicism and sardonic spleen.
Brian Logan, The Guardian, 23rd February 2017Can you recognise the comic actress in her latest role?
Why has she dared to be seen on stage in a Ms Trunchball-style outfit and long hair?
BBC News, 23rd February 2017Twelfth Night review: Tamsin Grieg is brilliant
Simon Godwin's well-cast production has a rich sense of fun, writes Henry Hitchings.
Henry Hitchins, Evening Standard, 23rd February 2017Twelfth Night review: 'Tamsin Greig is resplendent'
Twelfth Night has always been a play of abandon. Characters slip on different costumes, different gender identities, they shuck off their solemnity, they let loose.
Natasha Tripney, The Stage, 23rd February 2017Twelfth Night review: Tamsin Greig shines
It's hit and miss - or hit and mister (whatever suits); more a straightforward romp than a strange tragicomedy of unrequited love and mistaken identity. Doon Mackichan's Feste the clown is surprisingly low-key but then she's upstaged by the confused whirligig of larkiness around her. Recommended then? Yes, just, sure, but to my mind it's six of one, half a dozen of the other.
Domininc Cavendish, The Telegraph, 23rd February 2017Twelfth Night review: Greig's brilliant in fun show
Simon Godwin's inventive gender-fluid production of Shakespeare's most perfect comedy has a vital elan and some great performances.
Michael Billington, The Guardian, 23rd February 2017Twelfth Night review: Tamsin Greig brings comic brio
The National's take on Shakespeare's comedy is great fun - but skilfully brings home the play's pervading air of melancholy.
Ben Dowell, Radio Times, 23rd February 2017Review: Twelfth Night (Olivier, National Theatre)
Tamsin Greig plays Malvolia in this cross-gender casting version of Shakespeare's bawdy comedy.
Holly Williams, What's On Stage, 23rd February 2017Review: Twelfth Night, National Theatre
Tamsin Greig leads a triumphant Twelfth Night at The National, ingeniously re-imaging one of Shakespeare's most bitter misanthropes as Malvolia. The production is gloriously wacky and stunning to behold. Truly I saw the future of theatre, and it was beautiful.
Helena Payne, BritishTheatre.com, 23rd February 2017Twelfth Night, National Theatre, review
Tamsin Greig leads a superb cast in this giddy take on Shakespeare's classic comedy.
Alexandra Coghlan, The Arts Desk, 23rd February 2017BWW review: Twelfth Night, National Theatre
Suffused with grief and unrequited love, Twelfth Night is often played as an anti-comedy - more melancholy than mirthful. Not so in Simon Godwin's brash, gender-bending, utterly joyful rendering, which takes loss as a cue to embrace life
Marianka Swain, Broadway World, 23rd February 2017Interview: Tamsin Grieg on starring in Twelfth Night
It's not about 'shoving a square peg into a round hole', Greig says, but testing the boundaries.
Robert Dex, Evening Standard, 23rd February 2017Twelfth Night at The National Theatre - review
At a running time of around three hours including interval, there is nothing left out of this version of Twelfth Night but it's surprising how the time flies. This is a fun production with the emphasis on the many comedic elements of the story rather than dwelling on the melodramatic side. Everyone plays their part to produce a really great evening's entertainment and present the Bard at his absolute best.
Terry Eastham, London Theatre, 23rd February 2017Twelfth Night review
Director Simon Godwin and his doughty cast do not put a foot wrong in what must be the National Theatre's best Shakespearean production since Sir Nicholas Hytner's glorious Much Ado About Nothing, 10 years ago.
Philip Fisher, British Theatre Guide, 23rd February 2017Review: Twelfth Night at the National Theatre
In all her scene-stealing cross-gartered glory: Rosemary Waugh writes a love letter to Tamsin Greig thinly veiled as a review.
Rosemary Waugh, Exeunt Magazine, 23rd February 2017Twelfth Night at the National Theatre review
The National Theatre certainly knows how to put a cast together. In its extravagant production of Twelfth Night almost every major British sitcom from the last two decades, including Green Wing, The Office, Peep Show, The Day Today and Black Books, is represented on stage. This is the theatre flying its comedic flag high, Shakespeare's play taking on a heightened, campy tone.
Connor Campbell, The Upcoming, 23rd February 2017TV Review: Gap Year
I'll confess, I didn't expect to enjoy the first episode as much as I did. Too often it seems that shows about students, or for students, miss the mark.
Nasim Asl, The National Student, 23rd February 2017Review: Dying Laughing
Garry Shandling, who died last year, and to whom the movie is dedicated, may have the most sage advice. He calls stand-up comedy a "calling," which he warns "is too painful and difficult" for anyone to pursue casually.
Stephen Holden, The New York Times, 23rd February 2017Dying Laughing review
Because co-directors Lloyd Stanton and Paul Toogood are Brits, Dying Laughing features more British comics than might be expected, the most prominent being Steve Coogan and Billy Connolly, but their stories follow the same patterns as the Americans'.
Kenneth Turan, LA Times, 23rd February 2017Videos
TV
TV & radio
4:30pm30 min
Millie Inbetween
Series 3, Episode 12 - The Big DayWhen she realises it's finally time mum and Mike got married, Millie persuades Lauren and Craig they should 'propose' to them.
5:20pm15 min
Go Jetters
Series 1, Episode 50 - The Jigokudani Monkey Park, JapanThe Go Jetters fly to the rescue in Japan, as Glitch gets up to his usual monkey business.
9pm60 min
Gap Year
Episode 1 - China: The WallSean is horrified to discover that his best mate Dylan has a secret plan that threatens to derail their 'lads holiday' to China. Things start looking up with they meet two American girls.
10:30pm30 min
Newsjack
Series 16, Episode 5This week's cast features Kieran Hodgson, James Meehan and Jessica Ransom. In this edition we undergo a Brexorcism and fire up the lie detector...
11pm30 min
Jack & Millie
Pilot, Episode 1 - Kafka Died at 39A phone, a strudel and Franz Kafka combine to make Jack and Millie's day rather complicated. The couple also have to get to grips with a French daughter-in-law, gassy beer, Eye-Closing Leon and a married lifetime's-worth of verbal sparring.